Redshirt is the comedy sci-fi sim about social networking aboard a space station, starring the station's most ambitious low-ranking peon: you! Navigate the professional and interpersonal politics of the ubiquitous "Spacebook" to curry favor among friends and colleagues.

“Most games in the life sim genre would punish you for playing incorrectly, but Redshirt thrives on transgressions. Don’t let the charming, low-key tone and gentle referential humor fool you, this is pitch black stuff.”
8/10 – Paste Magazine

About This Game

Redshirt is the comedy sci-fi sim about social networking aboard a space station, starring the station's most ambitious low-ranking peon: you! Navigate the professional and interpersonal politics of the ubiquitous "Spacebook" to curry favor among friends and colleagues. As intense intergalactic conflict rages around you, it's up to you to accrue those all-important "likes" on your status updates! Whether you're looking for love, opportunities for promotion, or even a chance to play Zero-G golf with the captain, you can schmooze your way through social circles and claw your way up the career ladder. Perhaps you too can finally achieve the dream of an off-station transfer, or even the Redshirt's opportunity of a lifetime: being sent on an away-mission!

"Redshirt’s take on science fiction clichés is amusing, telling short stories in the form of status updates and messages, but the activity of playing the game is rather intense, even though it’s a turn-based life management sim. As if accidentally snubbing friends and causing heartbreak wasn’t enough, a short while into your misadventure, a disturbing message arrives. A calamity is coming. The station is doomed. People will die." - Rock Paper Shotgun

"Spying on an ex in a video game even though there’s no tangible benefit to doing so WHATS GOING ON" - Red Door Blue Key

Redshirt received an Honorable Mention in the 2014 IGF Awards for Excellence in Narrative!

Social Networking, But Not As We Know It...

Redshirt is a comedy sci-fi social networking simulation game. Create & customise your character, a brand new arrival aboard space station Megalodon-9, where you start your career on the lowest possible rung: a Transporter Accident Cleanup Technician. You also realise that everyone on the station is required to use the proprietary social network, "Spacebook"!

You hear rumours something terrible will happen soon aboard the station, and it's up to you to stop being a disposable nobody before it's too late! You can do this by interacting (through Spacebook!) with randomly-generated, AI-driven characters with their own unique personalities, trying to win friends and influence station citizens. Or, you can focus on what skills you need to climb the fairly-extensive career tree. Or, save up your KarmaCreds. Or, flirt your way up the station. The choice is yours, and there are different strategies. You just have a limited time in which to do it, otherwise... terrible things will happen. You are a Redshirt, after all!

Features

Satirical, tongue-in-cheek social simulation, filled with humour and political intrigue.

Detailed character creation: choose from 5 different species, from human to tentacled squid creature!

Each game is unique: Megalodon-9 is full of procedurally generated AI-driven characters, each with their own random personalities and profile pictures.

Customise station settings: define the kinds of personalities you'll encounter, from friendly chatterboxes to self-obsessed bigots.

Redshirt is a Facebook simulator with Sci Fi window dressing. Your mission is to social engineer your way to the top of the space station hierarchy. Along the way, you can make friends, start (and end) relationships, and arrange events with your cohabitants.

The gameplay involves making a limited number of moves per day on "Spacebook". This includes liking posts, sending messages and friend invites, and inviting friends to events. These events not only bring you closer to your friends, but will also change your interests. You must balance your interests to make friends with whoever your desired target is (either a goal given to you by the game, or the hiring manager at the next job you want). During the day you will also have to work, which will give you money and have an effect on your relationships.

Redshirt is one of those games where it's fun to tool around in for a few minutes, but after a bit you feel like you have seen everything that the game has to offer. I managed to get a really good promotion by dating the hiring manager, but the only reward I really got was that I could do the process all over again for an even better job. For those that enjoy that type of manipulation, maybe the fun can last for a few cycles. For me, I got bored rather quickly. The main feedback you get from your actions is your changing relationship status with other inhabitants of the space station. It comes in the form of the green and red bar that will be familiar to anyone that has played the Sims. The real issue I had with it was that there is not much separating one character from the next, besides a cartoon portait that looks a little bit the same from one character to the next. besides alien race of course. You never really feel like you are interacting with separate characters, like you would in the Sims for instance.

I do not recommend playing Redshirt. I felt like I was just playing Facebook with generic robots, which I guess in the end was what I was really doing. From my time with it, I didn't feel the motivation needed to keep advancing.

This game isn't worth $9.99. It is worth about a dollar or two. Maybe $3. I bought it on sale for 99 cents. If you are into sci-fi parodys, have low expectations, and enjoy social simulation games, you might want to get it. When you are really bored, its somewhat entertaining, Buy it in a bundle or during a sale, though.

Pros: Easy to learn Some character development. Star Trek fans (and sci-fi fans) will enjoy some of the humor. Decent graphics.

Simply a facebook simulator taken a bit further including events, work, career advancement, and romantic events. I do not recommend this game due to how there are broken achievements where only .04% of players have completed them mysteriously. You can still safely complete 18/20, but they're not as rare as the broken ones. It also seems that the developers have completely abandoned this game, so don't hold any hope towards updates. I've tried scrolling through the game's programming in order to manually unlock the achievements, but I cannot find them.

Story

You are an ....[Race] named ...[Name] sent to work for a big space station where there will be an extinction event pending xxx days. The game is about your journey to prevent, or accept your death aboard the doomed Station; however, you may die even before the extinction event on one of the legendary exploratory missions with comical & fatal consequences.

You will have two attributes to look after throughout the course of your journey: Health & Happiness. These two attributes are very important during surprise expeditions since they may decide whether you live or die.

In order to advance your career you have to do events/specific jobs in order advance skills. You will be given an option to escape through: Captain's Attendant[Career], Ambassador's lover[Romance], High Ranking Officer's Lover[Romance], Ted the black market[Bribery], and T'arg's overpriced ticket[Rich].

Final Decision

It's a completed, but broken game, so I would consider it a borderline cash grab since it's been abandoned by the developer.